


And Prices Are Paid

by mizzsy



Series: Chance and Consequence [2]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Demon Deals, M/M, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:09:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25530364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizzsy/pseuds/mizzsy
Summary: It’s been four months since Google was pulled from a highway crash and Bim was not. Four months of searching. Four months of loneliness. Four months of wondering what he’ll do if it turns out Bim is really gone for good. But after an intruder breaks into the manor, Google finds that the consequences of that night go far beyond a simple disappearance…
Relationships: Googleplier/Bim Trimmer, Mark Fischbach/Mark Fischbach
Series: Chance and Consequence [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849834
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	And Prices Are Paid

It was called Burntwood Road, located in Thompson, Canada. A large enough city with a hub of transport and services that it was not outside the parameters of his search, but the location and distance fell far outside Google's objective probability. 

Still, as soon as the notification had reached him, Google had left his room to go to the computer lab, tracing the path of a 5"9 male with dark hair and brown eyes caught on security cameras in the city just minutes ago. 

It wasn't him of course- but the program had matched the blurred features of this man's face to the photo Google had provided. His eyes weren't even brown, the android realised when he found a clearer face view, but a dark blue that had reflected the light just so on his alert. 

And so day 127 passed since Google had woken up in the infirmary with Bim seemingly disappeared. Not a single one of the egos - through magic or technology or sheer persistence - had found even a trace of the man since Google had lost him on the highway. Each idea led nowhere and Google's painfully raised expectations, numbers of probability and hope growing incrementally, crashed down again as the android's options began to disappear one by one. 

But he could not stop. Bim had to be somewhere, and Google would find him again. It was an impossibility not to. 

The Android left the program to run again - set to watch from security cameras in every inch of the world - and he went back to his new routine of dead ends and lowering chance. 

In his room, Illinois was waiting, still covered in the dirt and sweat of an arduous adventure but knowing better than to do shower before reporting to Google. 

"Well?" he asked briskly as he returned to his station. The adventurer sighed. 

"You hadda know it was a small chance Google -" 

"Did you find anything?" 

Illinois raised his hands placatingly, far too much pity in his eyes for Google to meet them for long. 

"I found the talisman but it didn't see anything. I got no clues."

Google nodded, the churning defeat in him easily masked through repetition as he turned his attention to the next, dwindling lead. 

"Google-" 

"You can leave now."

The adventurer paused, the twitch of his considering breath audible to Google before he shook his head and turned to leave. 

"Take it from an expert Google - sometimes when the trail goes cold-" 

_"Get out!"_

Cold charge flooded Google as he snapped, turning on Illinois as every suppressed part of his more violent objective rose to propose just how right it would be to break the man's back so he could never adventure again. 

Illinois didn't flinch, only stonily meeting Google's gaze before walking out and closing the door with a soft click behind him. 

Stupid, useless, _pathetic_ of Google to expect help of any worth from a human. No, none of them could help him. 

He would find Bim on his own, all he needed was more time. 

*

When Illinois came down to the living room, it was to find Dark deep in conversation with one of the septics. 

"Ah,Illinois" Dark spoke, noticing their company, "How was your expedition?" 

"Eventful." Illinois replied, dropping into the sofa with a groan-even the worn cushions felt like luxury after months in the desert. 

"And Google?" 

"Disappointed with the results." he frowned, "Has he left that room at all since I've been gone?" 

"Of course not" the Septic-the magician going by the cheap cape-cut in acidicly, "He's still stuck chasing his ghosts." 

"Marvin -" 

"You know I'm right Dark." The magician came to his feet, cape fluttering around his shoulders. "I didn't come to you to talk about Bim-I came with a trail."

"The power surges." Dark said, sighing as he turned to Illinois' curious face, "Marvin here thinks he's found a powerful new ego going by the energy signatures he's detected -" 

"I know it's powerful." the magician snapped, "the only other ego who puts out power like this is you and Wilford, and even you guys don't leave the mess behind this guy has."

"So,what,you want us to go do a meet and greet with this guy?" Illinois asked. 

"It’s active again, closer this time.I need your guys' help if he turns out to be less than friendly." Marvin said, pushing the green strands of hair from his face, "I got Jackie, but the rest of the septics aren't fighters or power users, you on the other hand-" 

"Wilford, The Host, Silver and I can come assist." Dark assured him, "And Illinois too, if he isn't too worn from his recent adventures."

Illinois waves a hand towards the two. 

"Just give me an hour-I'll be ready for whatever you like."

"What about the rest of them?" Marvin pressed, "Will they be-" 

"Everyone else in the Manor has other commitments that will keep them far from whatever fall out comes of this."

"And Google will stay here by himself, I imagine."

"Yes,"Dark replied, tone growing icy, " is that a problem? "

" Not at all. "Marvin said with a smile curling up to touch the edges of his face, "I think everything will work out just as planned."

*

The manor was quiet.

Google’s senses were always stretched across the building in some way- a background phantom of empty rooms in his visual banks, and a low buzz of conversations or footsteps or banging doors always asking for attention in Google’s primary focus. But they weren’t distracting, he wasn’t a human who could only manage limited input. Google ordered his multiple streams of senses with ease, ready to filter through to anything out of the ordinary or suspicious in a moment without breaking from his current task.

But for now it was quiet, and the android could turn his many inputs into processing multiple video feeds from around the world at once.

A man who was too short walked through a supermarket in Mumbai. One whose eyes were the wrong shape passed an ATM in Sheffield. A woman who had cut her hair short and wore an approximation of a suit was waiting at Grand Central station,smiling at the camera in an eerie likeness. Google passed by each of them with a practiced and weary action. A hundred places passed by, pushing more and more of himself into analysing more feeds and taking him away from where he sat in the empty manor. Even lost in the disappointment of all these almost-Bim’s, it was better than sitting where his human hadn’t been for months.

It was his fault then, why he missed anything wrong until his feed abruptly cut out.

Google was thrown back to his immediate surroundings, now darkened with every one of his screens off, and unable to access any of the other security systems in the manor. For once, he was limited to only what he could see in front of him- a situation he did not enjoy.

He was quick to leave the room- the possibility of the power outage being a fault quickly dismissed knowing just how many failsafes he himself had set up shortly after arriving at the manor. Which meant he had an intruder to find in the long, sprawling corridors.

Good- he had _plenty_ of churning emotions he’d like to work out on whoever was stupid enough to enter the ego’s domain.

The filters of his vision was more than enough to compensate for the darkness the manor had sunk into- searching each green hued corridor in seconds before moving methodically to the next. Yet nothing gave a clue- not even a table disrupted or a definite imprint of weight into the carpet. Whoever the intruder was, they were very careful and very light footed.

It was a creak that was the only warning - usually plenty of time for Google to react but he hadn't even a moment before a swift blow-fleeting and well placed enough that the assailant didn't shatter any bones- collapsed the androids knee hinge and sent him buckling to the floor with a crash. 

He was quick to push back to his feet, sensors turned high to track the other only to have them move around in blurs and dodges that left Google unable to pinpoint them until another blow came. Finally, he got his hand up in time to catch a hand as it came in, tightening down on a bony wrist until his heightened input caught the grind of bone and a heartbeat stuttering. 

"What exactly, do you think you're doing here?" he asked slowly, watching the burn of dark green in his vision still fail to focus as the intruder twisted and pulled with their head ducked down. He gripped harder, a gasp falling from unseen lips. 

"Well?" 

"Let. Me. Go."

_No._

It took no moment of analysis or even a second thought for Google to know - not when he'd spent every waking moment of the past 127 days replaying the exact tone, pitch and cadence of that voice that he could pick it out over the graniest of audio feeds. He let go in an instant, instead ducking his head to look at the others face, needing that last bit of confirmation after months of disappointment. 

The other moved fast- hand pushing through Google’s chest in a burning aura of purple, singing through cloth then into metal. Warnings screamed in his head, as the android tried to back away, only for the ground to drop from beneath him as Google tripped down the stairs in a series of heavy, metallic thunks, the world spinning in a weightless turn but no thought given to the damage as he fell. As he came to a clattering halt at the bottom, head rested on the last stairs, he only had time to push himself up on his elbows before a sharp edge pressed to his neck, and he glanced up to the face he'd been searching for, now illuminated clearly by the sunlight filtering through the windows. 

Pale skin had sunken in around previously subtle cheekbones and jawline, given a skeletal appearance only heightened by the heavy bags he normally would never let others see. His hair had been shaved-rough stubble along his head. His glasses were gone, no longer framing his eyes, which for so long Google had searched for as brown and wide and beautiful, and were now narrowed, royal purple pits. 

But still, Google knew, the placebo of a heart beating in his core only ever appeared in the presence of one person. 

_"Bim."_

*

“-going to be ok?”

“Hell if I know kid, just gotta wait and- Google? Ya okay there buddy?”

Ed Edgar’s face, unfortunately, filled Google’s vision as the world came back to him again. The ceiling behind him, along the intersect of the walls, told Google he hadn’t moved from his position splayed out on the stairs. But now, the lights filled the hall again, and Bim was gone once more.

He surged to his feet, spotting Eric Derekson scuttling backwards as he did, and turned to Edgar.

“The hell happened man? We come back and find you of all fellas conked out on the stairs- what happened that you-”

“Where’s Bim?”

Edgar froze, lips moving beneath the thatch of hair on his face before sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck without meeting Google’s eyes.

“Aw hell, please don’t tell me you got a memory reset. I don’t wanna tell you again-”

“No, he was just here Edgar-”

“Google,” Eric piped quietly from behind the cowboy, hands twisting around his yellow blanket, “Bim’s _gone_. A-a few months ago he-”

“I know that Eric!” Google snapped, no longer having the power to modulate his voice softer the way he usually did around the shyer ego, “I remember the crash and the search and every single day since that he has been missing. But he was here, back in the manor again!”

Both men watched him, and it was from the years he had spent perfecting his analysis of human expressions that he could see every passing twitch of pity in their faces.

“Google, if Bim came back, why ain’t he here now?” Edgar asked gently, hands up in peace, though the android could see the slightest shake in them as they passed the gun tucked away in his belt.

“I don’t know,” the android said briskly, “I assume the same reason he didn’t come home all these months, or why when he did, he apparently deactivated me during his visit.”

Numbers, analysis and problems all circled through Google’s processor-focussed and whirring with a new energy now it finally had something new to add to the equation it had pondered over for so long.

“Google-”

“Gather the others when they come back”, he ordered briskly as he turned and headed up the stairs, “we need to have a meeting.”

*  
It was clear from the stiff silence from every ego in the room that all of them were surprised to see Google in the meeting room. The android had been missing from their few gatherings as it was, not that he left his own room at all.

But now he took Wilford’s place at the head of the table, face set in determination and screen running behind him.  
“At 7:18pm today, the manor went dark,” he began, when he felt the others were truly ready to pay attention to his story, “all security measures were deactivated, and an intruder made their way to the second floor before I apprehended him.”

He paused, before the screen flickered to a blurry still of Google’s personal feed, sending a wave of recoils around the audience in the room.

“The intruder was Bim.” 

Uncomfortable murmurs began to rise, eyes flicking back and forth from the strange contortion of Bim’s face stretched over the tv screen- the contrast of white skin and burning eyes even more sickly on the brightly lit image.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Marvin, having come back with the others from a fruitless search and far too curious to leave, asked. The only one able to find his voice among the table too horrified to speak at the distortion of their friend.

“Something powerful has got hold of him.” Dark growled, aura thrashing violently around him.

“He had magic-nothing too complex, but more than he had before.” Google agreed, hand brushing over where Bim’s hand had burned into his chest, “Probably a fraction of whatever’s controlling him.”

“Or the entity we’ve been tracking.”

The room quieted once more, fixed on the Google and Dark’s rising tension.

“It’s no coincidence, I think, that Bim broke in whilst we were otherwise engaged.” Dark said slowly, each word cracking his jaw.

“It was a trap- probably trying to hide their hand for a while longer.” Marvin agreed, hands folded beneath his chin in thought, “for what, though? Was he carrying anything when you caught him Google?”

“No, I assume whatever he came to do, it was after he left me at the bottom of the stairs.” the android replied, “I’ve done a primary search- nothing of importance seems to be missing.”

“We need to track him. Now.” Dark said with finality. 

“What do you think I’ve been doing all this time Dark?” Google snapped, “ Even with this, there’s no footage for miles around the facility that would let me track him in time to-”

“I’ll help.”

The attention turned to the lone septic in the room.

“Excuse me?”

“If he used this new magic on you, I can track him when he uses it next.” Marvin said easily, a smug grin on his face, “Bim’s only borrowing his powers, there’s no way he’s strong enough to stop me from finding where he’s run off to.”

“Then do it.” Dark said, standing to his feet as he spoke, “we’ve wasted enough time letting whatever this thing is change Bim, it’s time to bring him home.”

*

In the end, it was a park just 15 minutes drive away that Google had to travel to. A small dog park King visited often himself, saying he had many squirrels to save from ‘the four legged terrors’.

Today, Google went alone. The moment the location spilled from the magician's lips the android had left, having no desire to bring a horde of gaggling spectators to the event. But now, as he stood just a few feet away from the figure huddling into their thin coat, he couldn’t bring himself to take another step closer.

 _It is him._ He confirmed to himself again, reciting the evidence that promised this wasn’t another false trail to end in disappointment, _it really is him._

He still stared at the shivering outline of Bim, waiting for the spark and warmth he had searched for all these months to return again now Bim was near-near enough to touch, and hold, and never lose again. But the cold circuitry of his insides remained stagnant, refusing the bit of hope they’d been given. But eventually, he had to make his move-before Dark or any of the others caught up at least.

He slid onto the bench next to where Bim sat, no need for announcing himself as his posture instantly tensed, purple eyes narrowing from where they stared out from behind dark sunglasses.  
“If you’re here for a rematch, I promise I’ll have you on your back and shut down again before you can even touch me.”  
His voice was wrong- rough, cracked, and spoken with short, tense words nothing like the usual melody Bim Trimmer took the care to make each of his sentences into-ever the performer.  
“I’m not here to fight you.” Google said evenly, keeping his sight forward rather than analyzing every detail of the changes in the man next to him. “I would never have hurt you at all if I’d known it was you in the manor.”  
“You really think you hurt me tincan?” Bim laughed, dry and ugly, “You think too highly of yourself.”  
“I’ve been told this many times- mostly by you, Bim.”  
The glow of the violet snapped to Google directly, his gloved hands stealing into his jacket but pausing there as Bim breathed heavily, watching Google like a guard dog.  
“You followed me up tincan? Use all your gadgets or whatever to stalk me home?”  
Google let himself watch back for a moment, trying to focus on signs of Bim about to flee rather than the scar on his cheek that looked too recent to be from the crash.  
“I did not research you, Bim. I _know_ you.” Google said softly, the aching movement in his wires like delicate breaths, “I know you-and you have known me, more than anyone else cared to.”  
“Shut up.” Snapped out into the cold air, a rhythmic ticking now obvious in Bim’s jaw as the haze of purple began to leak from behind his sunglasses, “You don’t know shit about me.”  
“You are Bim Trimmer- you are one of the Iplier egos since before I got there and we-”  
“No! You’re lying! None of that is me!”  
The bench had begun to warm under Google’s sensors.  
“You host Hire My Ass and edit with Wilford.”  
“No I don't! I never have!”  
“Bim,” Google said helpless, hand reaching out without control to the face it knew, “do you not remember-”  
_“Stop!”_  
Google’s world turned to purple and burning.  
Invisible flames scorched through Google’s body and mapped out every inch of his circuits until he was sure they had melted into slag and he’d be left with an empty chassis. Sparks and static field is vision as the garbled sounds of his own internal scream blocked out everything else. He twisted and contorted deep within himself, controlling any of his limbs far from possible as bit by bit, he fell to the ground.


End file.
